Published

Twitter, Guy Adams And The Cost Of Being A User – Forbes

Twitter suspended the account of journalist Guy Adams over his tweeting an NBC executive’s publically-available work email address. This heavy-handedness is another example that social media platforms where you are the product aren’t necessarily going to have your best interests at heart.

Maybe you thought Twitter exists to be a community. Or a tool. It doesn’t. It’s a media company that outsources the vast majority of its content. But outsourced doesn’t have to mean agnostic. In fact, it will mean that less and less as more partnerships emerge.

But maybe you thought you were Twitter’s customer. Or a partner. You’re not. You don’t pay, you don’t vote, you use. Like almost all social media sites, you are a user. And that distinction matters. NBC, for instance, is both a customer and a partner. The difference has been fairly clear the last day or so.

Update 9:29 PM: NBC withdrew its complaint and Adams’s account was reinstated around 2:30 today. Twitter explains on its blog (though the statement still claims the email Adams shared was private when it was not).